


Trail of Sulfur

by ragnarok89



Category: Fate/Zero
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, Bonfires, Canon Compliant, Dialogue Light, Drabble, During Canon, Family, Family Bonding, Gen, Healing, Introspection, Memories, Missing Scene, Mother-Son Relationship, Moving On, One Shot, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Canon, Psychological Trauma, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21787639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ragnarok89/pseuds/ragnarok89
Summary: Drabble. She remembered that she did have a heart after all.
Relationships: Emiya Kiritsugu & Natalia Kaminski
Kudos: 14





	Trail of Sulfur

Natalia had never considered herself one who held onto things. Ordinary people did, hoarding all different pieces of their lives in their closets, drawers, and so on. Needless clutter, Natalia thought. She didn't consider herself ordinary, not where she was hired to kill people to make a living. Natalia had nothing to tie her down, oh, no, someone wouldn't remember her. She was used to being on her own, but she still wished for someone to be there for her; there was a small comfort there.

The boy, Kiritsugu Emiya, looked like he had been through utter hell. Natalia felt ice dripping down the back of her neck, a cold anger that made her joints snap. Seeing him on that accursed island, where his home turned into a bloodied nightmare in one night—it didn't matter that he was the only one who had survived. It didn't matter that she could never say what she felt, showing more than what she could feel, that terrified her more than she could ever begin to describe. He had no one. He had no one left, and he looked at her, terrified and confused, and yet, he saw her as his savior.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. She reminded herself that she still had a job to do. That every single moment led to them crossing paths. It was nothing more than a fluke. She was ridiculous to take him with her, but she couldn't leave him there. It was a mistake, but he needed her. She remembered that she did have a heart after all, right where he had touched her.

The boy fell asleep by her side, and Natalia wrapped an arm around him. The flames across from them rippled, curling in on itself, turning painful memories into smoke and ashes. The boy suffered enough, and it was not her place to be sentimental, but she welcomed the feeling. It could never be enough. After all the blood she had shed, it would never be enough. Then the next one. And the next. Burning all the memories, erasing every sound of carnage, she could have left the boy behind. But she couldn't, and as she looked down on the boy Kiritsugu, his life in her hands now, she couldn't help but smile.

"I'll hold onto you, Kiritsugu."


End file.
